The Shot

for Tiger Woods, at the 2005 Masters

we watched him loft a chip shot from the rough
on the 16th, the ball dropped from the sky
like an aspirin in the middle of the green,
then we saw it move right like pure magic,

like a basketball player pivoting
before making a deft move to the hole,

this spinning little white ball made a beeline
in the direction of the cup,
crawling over the green it had twenty-twenty vision,

everyone watched, held their breaths,
when it got to the lip of the cup it lingered,
trembled at the edge like it was afraid of heights,
before dropping like a ball of sugar
into a cup of black coffee,

then the crowd erupted as he kneeled,

then stood, ramming his balled fist into the sky,
celebrating having been blessed by a miracle
cameras caught him in his signature logo

& everyone knew then the rest was pure glory